Hans Christian Andersen (Danish: [ˈhanˀs ˈkʁæsdjan ˈɑnɐsn̩]; often referred to in Scandinavia as H. C. Andersen; April 2, 1805 – August 4, 1875) was a Danish author and poet. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales, a literary genre he so mastered that he himself has become as mythical as the tales he wrote. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories—called eventyr, or "fantastic tales"—express themes that transcend age and nationality.

During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide and was feted by royalty. Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.

Early life

 

Hans Christian Andersen was born in the town of Odense, Denmark, on Tuesday, April 2, 1805. He was an only child. Andersen's father, also Hans, considered himself related to nobility. His paternal grandmother had told his father that their family had in the past belonged to a higher social class, but investigations prove these stories unfounded. Theories that Andersen may have been an illegitimate son of King Christian VII persist. Nevertheless, King Frederick VI took a personal interest in him as a youth and paid for a part of his education.

Andersen's father, who had received an elementary education, introduced Andersen to literature, reading him Arabian Nights. Andersen's mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, was uneducated and worked as a washerwoman following his father's death in 1816, remarrying in 1818. Andersen was sent to a local school for poor children where he received a basic education and was forced to support himself, working as a weaver's apprentice and, later, for a tailor. At 14, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor. Having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told him that he considered Andersen a poet. Taking the suggestion seriously, Andersen began to focus on writing.

Jonas Collin, following a chance encounter with Andersen, immediately felt a great affection for him, and sent him to a grammar school in Slagelse, covering all his expenses. Andersen had already published his first story, The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave, in 1822. Though not a keen student, he also attended school at Elsinore until 1827.

He later said his years in school were the darkest and most bitter of his life. At one school, he lived at his schoolmaster's home. There he was abused in order "to improve his character," he was told. He later said the faculty had discouraged him from writing in general, causing him to enter a state of depression.

Career

 

Early work

A very early fairy tale by Andersen called The Tallow Candle (Danish: Tællelyset) was discovered in a Danish archive in October 2012. The story, written in the 1820s, was about a candle who did not feel appreciated. It was written while he was still in school and dedicated to a benefactor, in whose family's possession it remained until it turned up among other family papers in a suitcase in a local archive.

In 1829, Andersen enjoyed considerable success with a short story titled A Journey on Foot from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of Amager. In the book, the protagonist meets characters ranging from Saint Peter to a talking cat. He followed this success with a theatrical piece, Love on St. Nicholas Church Tower and a short volume of poems. Though he made little progress writing and publishing immediately thereafter, in 1833 he received a small traveling grant from the King, enabling him to set out on the first of many journeys through Europe. At Jura, near Le Locle, Switzerland, he wrote the story, Agnete and the Merman. He spent an evening in the Italian seaside village of Sestri Levante the same year, inspiring the name, The Bay of Fables. In October, 1834, he arrived in Rome. Andersen's travels in Italy would be reflected in his first novel; an autobiography titled The Improvisatore (Improvisatoren) which was published in 1835, receiving instant acclaim.

Fairy tales and poetry

His initial attempts at writing fairy tales were rewrites of stories that he heard as a child. Andersen brought this genre to a new level by writing a vast number of fairy tales that were both bold and original. Initially they were not met with recognition, due partly to the difficulty in translating them and capturing his genius for humor and dark pathos.

It was during 1835 that Andersen published the first installment of his immortal Fairy Tales (Danish: Eventyr; lit. "fantastic tales"). More stories, completing the first volume, were published in 1836 and 1837. The collection consists of nine tales that includes The Tinderbox, The Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, and The Emperor's New Clothes. The quality of these stories was not immediately recognized, and they sold poorly. At the same time, Andersen enjoyed more success with two novels, O.T. (1836) and Only a Fiddler (1837); the latter was reviewed by the young Søren Kierkegaard.

After a visit to Sweden in 1837, Andersen became inspired by Scandinavism and committed himself to writing a poem that would convey the relatedness of Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. It was in July 1839 during a visit to the island of Funen that Andersen first wrote the text of his poem, Jeg er en Skandinav (I am a Scandinavian).Andersen composed the poem to capture "the beauty of the Nordic spirit, the way the three sister nations have gradually grown together," as part of a Scandinavian national anthem. Composer Otto Lindblad set the poem to music, and the composition was published in January 1840. Its popularity peaked in 1845, after which it was seldom sung. Andersen spent 2 weeks at the Augustenborg Palace in the autumn of 1844.

Andersen returned to the fairy tale genre in 1838 with another collection, Fairy Tales Told for Children (1838) (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Ny Samling.), which consists of The Daisy, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and The Wild Swans.

The year 1845 heralded a breakthrough for Andersen with the publication of four different translations of his fairy tales. The Little Mermaid appeared in the popular periodical Bentley's Miscellany. It was followed by a second volume, Wonderful Stories for Children. Two other volumes enthusiastically received were A Danish Story Book and Danish Fairy Tales and Legends. A review that appeared in the journal The Anthenaeum (February 1846) said of Wonderful Stories, "This is a book full of life and fancy; a book for grandfathers no less than grandchildren, not a word of which will be skipped by those who have it once in hand."

Andersen would continue to write fairy tales, and he published them in installments until 1872. His most popular works are listed below

Travelogues

 

In 1851, he published to wide acclaim In Sweden, a volume of travel sketches. A keen traveler, Andersen published several other long travelogues: Shadow Pictures of a Journey to the Harz, Swiss Saxony, etc. etc. in the Summer of 1831, A Poet's Bazaar, In Spain, and A Visit to Portugal in 1866. (The latter describes his visit with his Portuguese friends Jorge and Jose O'Neill, who were his fellows in the mid-1820s while living in Copenhagen.) In his travelogues, Andersen took heed of some of the contemporary conventions about travel writing, but always developed the genre to suit his own purposes. Each of his travelogues combines documentary and descriptive accounts of the sights he saw with more philosophical passages on topics such as being an author, immortality, and the nature of fiction in the literary travel report. Some of the travelogues, such as In Sweden, even contain fairy-tales.

In the 1840s, Andersen's attention returned to the stage, but with little success. He had better fortune with the publication of the Picture-Book without Pictures (1840). The fame of his fairy tales had grown steadily; a second series began in 1838 and a third in 1845. Andersen was now celebrated throughout Europe, although his native Denmark still showed some resistance to his pretensions.

Between 1845 and 1864, H. C. Andersen lived at 67 Nyhavn, Copenhagen, where a memorial plaque now stands.

Personal life

 

Meetings with Dickens

In June 1847, Andersen paid his first visit to Britain and enjoyed a triumphal social success during the summer. The Countess of Blessington invited him to her parties where intellectual and famous people could meet, and it was at one party that he met Charles Dickens for the first time. They shook hands and walked to the veranda which was of much joy to Andersen. He wrote in his diary, "We had come to the veranda, I was so happy to see and speak to England's now living writer, whom I love the most."

The two authors respected each other's work and had something important in common as writers: Depictions of the poor and the underclass, who often had difficult lives affected both by the Industrial Revolution and by abject poverty. In the Victorian era there was a growing sympathy for children and an idealization of the innocence of childhood.

Ten years later, Andersen visited Britain again, primarily to visit Dickens. He extended a brief visit to Dickens' home into five weeks, to the distress of Dickens' family. Dickens stopped all correspondence between them, after the disastrous stay, much to the great disappointment and confusion of Andersen, who had quite enjoyed the visit, and never understood why his letters went unanswered.

Love life

 

In Andersen's early life, his private journal records his refusal to have sexual relations.

Andersen often fell in love with unattainable women and many of his stories are interpreted as references. At one point, he wrote in his diary: "Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!" A girl named Riborg Voigt was the unrequited love of Andersen's youth. A small pouch containing a long letter from Riborg was found on Andersen's chest when he died, several decades after he first fell in love with her, and after he supposedly fell in love with others. Other disappointments in love included Sophie Ørsted, the daughter of the physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, and Louise Collin, the youngest daughter of his benefactor Jonas Collin. The most famous of these was the opera soprano Jenny Lind. One of his stories, The Nightingale, was a written expression of his passion for Lind, and became the inspiration for her nickname, the "Swedish Nightingale". Andersen was often shy around women and had extreme difficulty in proposing to Lind. When Lind was boarding a train to take her to an opera concert, Andersen gave Lind a letter of proposal. Her feelings towards him were not the same; she saw him as a brother, writing to him in 1844 "farewell... God bless and protect my brother is the sincere wish of his affectionate sister, Jenny."

Just as with his interest in women, Andersen would become attracted to nonreciprocating men. For example, Andersen wrote to Edvard Collin: "I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench... my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery." Collin, who preferred women, wrote in his own memoir: "I found myself unable to respond to this love, and this caused the author much suffering." Likewise, the infatuations of the author for the Danish dancer Harald Scharff and Carl Alexander, the young hereditary duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, did not result in any relationships.

In recent times, some literary studies have speculated about the homoerotic camouflage in Andersen's works.

Death

n the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of his bed and was severely hurt, never fully recovering. Soon after he started to have signs of liver cancer, dying on August 4, 1875 in a house called Rolighed (literally: calmness), near Copenhagen, the home of his close friends, the banker Moritz Melchior and his wife. Shortly before his death, he had consulted a composer about the music for his funeral, saying: "Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with little steps." His body was interred in the Assistens Kirkegård in the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen.

At the time of his death, Andersen was internationally treasured. The Danish Government paid him an annual stipend as a "national treasure". Even before his death, steps had already been taken to erect a large statue in his honor by sculptor August Saabye, which can now be seen in the Rosenborg Castle Gardens in Copenhagen.

Legacy

Postage stamp, Denmark, 1935

Andersen's stories laid the groundwork for other children's classics, such as Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. The technique of making inanimate objects, such as toys, come to life (Little Ida's Flowers) would later be used by Lewis Carroll and Beatrix Potter. In the English-speaking world, his fairy tales remain immensely popular and are widely read. The Emperor's New Clothes and The Ugly Duckling have both become household words.

April 2, Andersen's birthday, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day. The year 2005, designated "Andersen Year" in Denmark, was the bicentenary of Andersen's birth, and his life and work was celebrated around the world. In Denmark, a well-attended "once is a lifetime" show was staged in Copenhagen's Parken Stadium to celebrate the writer and his stories.

A $13-million theme park based on Andersen's tales and life opened in Shanghai at the end of 2006. Multi-media games and cultural contests related to the fairy tales are available to visitors. Andersen is said to have been celebrated because he was "a nice, hardworking person who was not afraid of poverty". The Japanese city of Funabashi also has a children's theme park named after Andersen.

In the United States, statues of Andersen may be found in New York City's Central Park, Chicago's Lincoln Park, and in Solvang, California, a city founded by Danes. The Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division was bequeathed an extensive collection of Andersen materials by the Danish-American actor, Jean Hersholt. Of particular note is an original scrapbook Andersen prepared for the young Jonas Drewsen.

Film

The 1952 film Hans Christian Andersen, though inspired by Andersen's life and literary legacy, was meant to be neither historically nor biographically accurate; it begins by saying, "This is not the story of his life, but a fairy tale about this great spinner of fairy tales." A more accurate biographical treatment was attempted in Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale in 2003.

Andersen is a main character in the Disney TV series The Little Mermaid's episode, "Metal Fish". Here, his inspiration for writing his tale The Little Mermaid is shown to have been granted by an encounter with the show's protagonists.

In 1966, Rankin/Bass Productions produced a fantasy film called The Daydreamer, which depicts the young Hans Christian Andersen imaginatively conceiving the famous stories he would later write.

Statues Statue in Central Park, New York commemorating Andersen and The Ugly Duckling Andersen statue at the Rosenborg Castle Gardens, Copenhagen  Statue in Odense being led out to the harbour during a public exhibition  Odense statue half submerged in the water  Statue in Solvang, California, a city built by Danish immigrants. 

Famous fairy tales

Further information: Hans Christian Andersen bibliography

Some of his most famous fairy tales include:

• The Angel (1843) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Bell (1845) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Emperor's New Clothes (1837) University of Southern Denmark
• The Galoshes of Fortune (1838) "Lykkens Kalosker"
• The Fir Tree (1844) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Happy Family (1847)
• The Ice-Maiden (1861) "Iisjomfruen"
• It's Quite True! (1852) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Little Match Girl (1848) University of Southern Denmark
• The Little Mermaid (1836) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• Little Tuck (1847) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Nightingale (1844) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Old House (1847) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• Sandman (1841) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Princess and the Pea (1835; also known as The Real Princess) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• Several Things (1837) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Red Shoes (1845) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Shadow (1847) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep (1845)
• The Snow Queen (1844) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1838) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Story of a Mother (1847) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Swineherd (1841) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• Thumbelina (1835) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Tinderbox (1835) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Ugly Duckling (1844) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)
• The Wild Swans (1838) University of Southern Denmark (Danish)

Influence

Contemporary literary and artistic works inspired by Andersen's stories include:

• "The Naked King" ("Голый Король (Goliy Korol)" 1937), "The Shadow" ("Тень (Ten)" 1940), and "The Snow Queen" ("Снежная Королева (Sniezhenaya Koroleva)" 1948) by Eugene Schwartz: reworked and adapted to the contemporary reality plays by one of Russia's most famous playwrights. Schwartz's versions of "The Shadow" and "The Snow Queen" were later made into movies (1971 and 1966, respectively).
• Sam the Lovesick Snowman at the Center for Puppetry Arts: a contemporary puppet show by Jon Ludwig inspired by The Snow Man.
• The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf by Kathryn Davis: A contemporary novel about fairy tales and opera.
• The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge: An award-winning novel that reworks the Snow Queen's themes into epic science fiction.
• The Nightingale by Kara Dalkey: A lyrical adult fantasy novel set in the courts of old Japan.
• The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr: A novel that brings Andersen's fairy tale to colonial and modern America.
• Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier: A romantic fantasy novel, set in early Ireland, thematically linked to "The Wild Swans."
• The Snow Queen by Eileen Kernaghan: A gentle Young Adult fantasy novel that brings out the tale's subtle pagan and shamanic elements.
• "The Snow Queen," a short story by Patricia A. McKillip (published in Snow White, Blood Red).
• "La petite marchande d'allumettes", film by Jean Renoir (1928)
• "You, Little Match Girl," a short story by Joyce Carol Oates (published in Black Heart, Ivory Bones).
• "Sparks," a short story by Gregory Frost (based on The Tinder Box, published in Black Swan, White Raven).
• "Steadfast," a short story by Nancy Kress (based on The Steadfast Tin Soldier, published in Black Swan, White Raven).
• "The Sea Hag," a short story by Melissa Lee Shaw (based on The Little Mermaid, published in Silver Birch, Blood Moon).
• "The Real Princess," a short story by Susan Palwick (based on The Princess and the Pea, published in Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears).
• "Match Girl," a short story by Anne Bishop (published in Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears)
• "The Pangs of Love," a short story by Jane Gardam (based on The Little Mermaid, published in Close Company: Stories of Mothers and Daughters).
• "The Chrysanthemum Robe," a short story by Kara Dalkey (based on The Emperor's New Clothes, published in The Armless Maiden).
• "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," a short story by Joan D. Vinge (published in Women of Wonder).
• "In the Witch's Garden," a short story by Naomi Kritzer (based on The Snow Queen, published in Realms of Fantasy magazine, October 2002 issue).
• "The Last Poems About the Snow Queen," a poem cycle by Sandra Gilbert (published in Blood Pressure).
• Striking Twelve, a modern musical take on The Little Match Girl created and performed by GrooveLily.

See also

Poetry portal Children's literature portal

• Hans Christian Andersen Award, a prize awarded by the International Board on Books for Young People
• Kjøbenhavnsposten, a Danish newspaper in which Andersen published one of his first poems
• Vilhelm Pedersen, the first illustrator of Andersen's fairy tales
• Pleated Christmas hearts, invented by Andersen

Notes